Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to speak to you today.
My name is Paddy Lamb. I am a working visual artist living in Strathcona County, Alberta. I have been actively involved in advocating for visual artists at a local, provincial and national level for more than 15 years. Since 2015 I have served as co-chair of Copyright Visual Arts. Although my work does sell in a commercial gallery, occasional sales make up only a small portion of what I earn through my practice, so I'd like to begin with an explanation of the importance of royalty distribution to artists like me across the country and how the scope of this organization addresses that.
Copyright Visual Arts is a not-for-profit copyright management society run by and for artists, offering specialized author's rights administration for professional Canadian and Québécois visual and media artists. It provides users with comprehensive access to the artworks and professional services of its members. It negotiates and issues licences that allow the legal use of artists' work, collects the royalties, and pays the artists.
We seek to provide an inclusive and accessible platform for the management of copyright royalties for all visual and media artists in Canada. We also seek to educate artists about copyright, moral and intellectual property and the use of their work, and to improve the socio-economic conditions of visual artists by advocating for improved federal legislation, including the artist's resale right, reforms to the Copyright Act, fair dealing and best practice standards.
Copyright Visual Arts has over 25 years' experience in collecting and remitting exhibition, reprography and reproduction royalties for visual artists. Annual royalty revenues are paid to approximately 1,000 artists. We issue all appropriate tax forms for these payments. Any interested artist may affiliate without any cost.
As the primary copyright collective for Canadian visual artists, we monitor and respond to developments in copyright policy. We regularly attend meetings of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, CISAC, and its subgroup, the International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic and Photographic Arts. As such, our members benefit from knowledge of the international market as well as reciprocal licensing agreements with more than 15 countries. We offer presentations on copyright and our services on an annual basis at national and regional conferences, at meetings of artists' associations and community groups, and at professional practices classes at universities and colleges.
Most recently we've undertaken several important new initiatives in response to the needs of artists. We are working with a broad coalition of indigenous arts associations to develop an indigenous intellectual property guide. We are partnering with CARFAC and Access Copyright to develop new tools to allow for certified attribution of works of art through the use of blockchain technology.
Copyright Visual Arts is the lead partner in a major project to create an online licensing website for Canadian visual art. The project's objective is to make strategic use of digital technologies by developing a modern copyright management tool for visual art that simplifies and accelerates the licensing process with secure online payments. It will improve access to Canadian visual artists' work while also ensuring that artists' rights are respected and royalties are paid. The project includes an online image bank of artists' work, a fee calculator, and an integrated licensing system. It will enable artists, museums, artist-run centres, educational institutions and private users to join other players in Canada's creative industries by participating more fully in the digital economy.
I would now like to introduce my colleague, Grant McConnell.